[rosser]

That's a reductio fallacy. If you want to play that game, it was being deployed to that specific place that caused their deaths. Or was it enlisting in the first place? Maybe merely having been born?

This is a strictly technical examination of the proximate cause of their deaths; it makes no claims about their ultimate cause. Whether or not a missile system with an accurate clock might have hit the target, it is unambiguous that this one missed specifically because of clock drift.

[adamredwoods]

So much could go right or wrong, especially when in a war, or even when depending on technology in our households (fire alarms, replace your batteries!).

I feel "preventable deaths" is a preferable focus over "cause of death".

[jasonmaydie]

How so? The implication you and the article are asserting is that the clock error caused their deaths.. rather than the more accurate description "could have prevented death".

[Vivtek]

Well, it wasn't the missile that caused their deaths. Strictly speaking, it was the explosion of the missile.

Well, wait. It wasn't the explosion - technically, it was the impact of the pressure wave on their bodies that caused ... well, no. Really, it was the fact that their organs stopped working after impact of the ... well. If you really want to be accurate, it was the fact that metabolism ceased to be practicable after their organs stopped working.

Well, no, actually, the fact that their mental processes depended on their metabolism - that was really the cause of their... Well, no...

[berns]

At this point we are already used to these trashy titles. There is no logic reasoning game to play; simply the bad faith in the title must be mentioned. And considering that the death of 28 persons is involved, it's in poor taste.

[KindOne]

More technically information on the math behind the failure. http://www-users.math.umn.edu/~arnold/disasters/patriot.html

[mannykannot]

If you are going to be pedantic, you might want to be very careful about what you write... How do you figure it would be more accurate to say that the clock error "could have prevented death?"

[euyyn]

It would depend on whether they were relying on it to work or not.